What's New in 0.8.5
- jealousy scenes now trigger after the 4th scene of each character playthrough
- writer slightly modified some jealousy scenes so they work better since they happen early in the story
- removed the cheat to display the skillcheck count since it's no longer needed
- fixed more typos/sentences

What's New in 0.8.4
- Kamal & Borges jealousy was broken (would repeat forever) so fixed that scene only (the others were OK!)

What's New in 0.8.3
- fixed the endlessly jealousy scenes (AKA "forever jealous"!). Now they correctly play once, and force you to choose between one of the two characters

What's New in 0.8.2
- fixed jealousy scenes triggering: now they trigger after the second scene of each route, not based on relationship percentage, to avoid weird situations later in the story where Marcel seems mad
- lowered the amount of skillchecks needed to trigger the skillful achievement to 14: since it should only count the main plot checks, and not the romance bonus CG one. Also removed the reputation double check at the end, it only checks once.
- fixed a lot of typos! and replaced the "Yeah" with other words/sentences. Marcel's hair will also be left in peace
- the ending happy romance ending scenes won't trigger if you have Reputation less than 90 and leave with Licia
- added a "cheat": press key C to display the amount of main plot checks passed. Useful to test for those who don't manage to get the "Skillful" achievement. The value to unlock the achievement at end of the story (after last Reputation check) should be 14.

What's New in 0.8.1
- Vincent's second scene will play only after Eloy is introduced
- Borges' third scene will play only after Licia is introduced
- Kamal and Eloy sexy bonus CG should now play!
- made Easy mode a bit more easy too. But in general following the walkthrough you should be able to win even in Normal difficulty!
- fixed some wrong Marcel sudden outfit changes (if you find more let me know!)
- fixed various typos

Difficulty should be fine: in Normal you need to figure out how to distribute the points in the early weeks to have enough reputation at the end. I tried and it's definitely doable. In Easy mode, you should reall try hard to lose

In any case, as always here's a walkthrough. But if you like to find your way to win I won't recommend reading it immediately!

Spoiler:

To win this game and unlock the final "happy" romance ending, you need to have enough relationship with the love interest (obviously) but also enough reputation at the end of the game.
The relationship needed is 100%, while the reputation needed is 90, and you must reach both values within week 34 (the last week of the story).
During the game there are various skill checks that will raise or lower the reputation by 5. The key to win is to pass the early check of the story since they will all give you 5 points.
The good news is that the reputation also increases (albeit slowly) with the random outcomes of the game activities, so you don't need to pass ALL the skill checks to win (though there's an achievement for that!).

Below there's the various skill checks in the order they appear in the game:
1) Tidiness & Strength >= 10. So for the first two week, do Clean Rooms and Haul Luggage to reach the required values.
2) Etiquette & Management >=10. In the 3rd and 4th week, do Write Letters and Take Inventory to reach again the required values.
3) Now things get slightly harder: in this check you need 20 Strength and 10 Awareness. In week from 5 to 7 do Attend Guest and Haul Luggage and you will have enough values.
4) next check is easier: Diligence & Education >=10. In weeks from 8 to 10 do Gardening and Shelve Books and you should have the right values.
5) the scene 10 of main plot is the key scene since there are 3 checks! you need Charisma 10 and Diligence & Tidiness at 20. Because of that in weeks from 11 to 14 you should use Gardening, Charm Shopkeeper and Clean Rooms. You should be able to reach the required values without problems.

At this point you are about halfway through the game. You should have already some relationships if you picked the right answers. Some (or in some cases all, especially if you're playing in Easy mode) of next checks can be failed, since you'll still have enough reputation from the scheduler. Here they are:
6) scene 11: Education & Management >=20
7) scene 13: Charisma & Awareness >=20 scene 14: Etiquette >=20

The best strategy for weeks until week 20 is to do 1-2 days of an activity that might raise the value of the remaining checks, and the other 5-6 days do the 2 activities related to the character you're pursuing. This way you'll advance in the related stat and increase the relationship.

The 9th scene with each character has a special CG event, which requires a value of 90 in the related stat. For example you'll need 90 in Physique to see a sweating shirtless Kamal You can still get the final romance even if you miss those bonus CG scenes though.

From the week 20 onward, you should focus on the two activities related to the love interest. For Kamal for example would be Haul Luggage & Gardening. Keep doing those two, and eventually you'll max one of the two values: when a value is maxed, it will ALWAYS give Reputation or Relationship! Which means that once you reach Diligence 100, every time you do Gardening again will increase Kamal relationship by 1. Or once you reach Strength 100, every time you do Haul Luggage your Reputation will increase by 1.

If you keep this in mind, in the last weeks of the game you should get a boost either in relationship or reputation that will let you win the game and unlock the ending CGs!

I actually found time to give the game a short try today and... I'm so impressed. :D
Writing, art and music work great together and I'm a huge fan of how the story progresses. The characters are written so lively it makes the whole game exciting and funny enough to read even when one doesn't plan on romancing any of the guys. (I for one do of course. xD Thought of going for either Vincent or Kamal for a first try. ^^)
That short first impression and praise given... I'll call it quits for today and then maybe will start tomorrow taking down notes on some spelling mistakes I came across. (I'm too good for my own tastes at finding those. x,D)

Spoiler:

Yeah... on my first try... I got the bad ending. Just my luck, I guess. xDDD

Last edited by SimonStardust on Fri May 06, 2016 6:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Love the game so far! Got to the end of the demo last night. Purchased the full game, too, but due to upcoming Mother's Day weekend, I'm afraid I won't have much time to go further until next week. Can't wait! I saw that Kamal and Rene got the prettiest backgrounds in the wallpapers. <3

Question: Whenever we are making response choices, is the positive/successful choice always worth half a rose? I think I saw the bar go up a whole rose at one point with Borges. I'll try to find that that again later if that's not how it's supposed to be.

The first 5 scenes, they go up half rose (or 5%) while in the last 5 scenes, they go up for a "full rose" (10%). I did that because otherwise was too hard to reach 100% at the end, at least in Normal difficulty

Okay, so I purchased and played through the game because I've been dying for a BL/yaoi only game from you, and have thus been following Heirs & Graces quite avidly.

Since my university degree (in creative writing) is largely not terribly fulfilling in terms of what I can use it for, I'm going to do a little review on the story, because workshopping other people's writing is literally one of my few skills.

There are a few problems, grammatically I found a few little issues (early in the game there is a use of 'too' where it should be 'to'). Small but it was jarring for me as I was reading.

There was a distinct overuse of the word Yeah throughout the game. Especially by characters who I expected to be refined enough to say, I don't know, Yes, Of Course, Perhaps, It would seem so, Indeed or anything else (Vincent, Sandor, etc). It got to be a bit annoying, especially during the final few scenes.

Also, why does it seem everyone has the same way of expressing affection for Marcel? You can only ruffle someone's hair so many times. I mean, for Kamal, who did it the most, it made sense. But should Eloy perhaps not do something more teasing? Or what's wrong with a squeeze of the shoulder or hand? It just really stuck out to me.

I played through most of the routes simultaneously, and I believe each feels relatively distinct. They all did certainly play into their particular tropes, but in ways I found enjoyable. Yes, Eloy is a flirt and falls into those cliches, but seeing the interactions between him and Sandor were wonderful, and the writer touched upon the lifespan issues for he and Marcel in a way that I found both touching and saddening. I applaud that. Borges was refreshing, and the subplot both romantic and comedic enough that I rather enjoyed it thoroughly. Kamal was

Vincent, whom I went in expecting to really pursue, ended up seeming somewhat dull in comparison. I played through eight of his events before a jealousy scene triggered, and I decided to drop him. Hopefully when I do decide to follow through with his route, I will find something more in him.

One of my favourite scenes? Where Rosalynn and Marcel have their argument, and she's moving his head about with her heel. Wow. Great character defining moment. I loved it.

Now, the relationship between Marcel and Sandor? Damn. I don't cry easily - and no, this game did not make me cry, but I did feel the sensation of sympathy and sadness, and had a little stinging in my eyes. And for a stone cold bitch like me, that means something.

I will say though, I played through the Good Alone ending, and it was... not satisfying, perhaps because it seemed to end a bit abruptly. Maybe there are ways in which Rosalynn is dealt with and other issues (like Licia's family and her decision about revenge) that are settled in other routes, but nothing seemed very well addressed here. As it is a dating sim perhaps this should be expected.

On the technically side, multiple times throughout the game Marcel changed outfit mid conversation. It would happen for one line of dialogue and then he would switch back. Other times it seemed as though he was wearing his regular outfit when he should have been dressed in his uniform.

Next, the scene introducing Licia and Renee triggered after one of Borges' in which Licia and Marcel were shopping. It was confusing, and I expect that it is probably meant to trigger after the scene in which I learn Licia's name, not before.

Lastly on the technical, and this is a gameplay issue, wow - 90 points on Easy mode for the bachelor's requirements? Yikes. I was at about 40 in all of the groups (Decorum, Physique, etc) and in the mid 40s with the individual stats (Etiquette, Tidiness, etc) by the time Eloy and Borges' scenes requiring me to have 90 Decorum and Knowledge respectively triggered. Perhaps on Easy Mode 90 should be lowered to 45 or 50? At least one of those I can manage on easy, because I was trying to keep all the stats up to meet the requirements in the main events and grab that achievement.

Alright, so that's that. I think I'll wait to replay and get the bachelor's endings for when version 1 or further have been officially released, so things get the chance to be spruced up and balanced and whatnot. I was just to eager to play this, and I really loved my first playthrough.

ChaosMorning wrote:Lastly on the technical, and this is a gameplay issue, wow - 90 points on Easy mode for the bachelor's requirements? Yikes. I was at about 40 in all of the groups (Decorum, Physique, etc) and in the mid 40s with the individual stats (Etiquette, Tidiness, etc) by the time Eloy and Borges' scenes requiring me to have 90 Decorum and Knowledge respectively triggered. Perhaps on Easy Mode 90 should be lowered to 45 or 50? At least one of those I can manage on easy, because I was trying to keep all the stats up to meet the requirements in the main events and grab that achievement.

I agree with you on most of what you said, but I think the right strategy here is to get everything up to twenty, then completely ignore all the stats that aren't tied to your chosen bachelor. That means you'll only see one or maybe two of those CGs in a given playthrough, but it makes reaching 90 on that one pretty simple.

On a related note, I should have gotten Kamal's bonus CG, but the game pulled a file-not-found and didn't pull it up. Not sure if that's an error or if the beta just hasn't had those added yet. Thought I'd mention.

Foelhe wrote:
On a related note, I should have gotten Kamal's bonus CG, but the game pulled a file-not-found and didn't pull it up. Not sure if that's an error or if the beta just hasn't had those added yet. Thought I'd mention.

I got the problem too.

And it's not really bug but I saw the scene with Marcel and Licia following Rene and Borges two day before the scene where Licia introduce herself to Marcel.

Thanks for feedback, regarding the problems: Kamal CG should show up, but I think I know what's the issue. I think also Eloy CG won't work, so will do an update later today or tomorrow, also fixing some of those "this scene should play after this one" thing

About the stats values needed: if you read the walkthrough it's clearly explained how it works (I'll also make a separate thread since I think some people miss it). Lowering the requirements to 40-50... well, would make the game super easy and the whole stat raising pointless . You only need to reach 20 in all skills, and that is not even required, unless you want to unlock the related achievement.